Bill Simon (politician)

Bill Simon, in mid-2005

William Edward Simon, Jr. (born June 20, 1951), best known as Bill Simon, is an American businessman and politician. In 2002, Simon campaigned unsuccessfully for Governor of California as a Republican against Democratic incumbent Gray Davis. Billed as a "conservative Republican," the virtually unknown Simon's campaign was significantly boosted by support from better-known Republican officeholders from out of state, including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Background

Simon was born in Neptune, New Jersey, the son of William E. Simon, Sr., the 63rd Secretary of the Treasury under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Coincidentally, Simon was a childhood friend of current Democratic party chair Howard Dean.

Simon earned a B.A. from Williams College in 1973, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, and a J.D. from Boston College in 1982. From 1986 to 1988, Simon served as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, working under then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani.

In 1988, Simon, together with his father and brother J. Peter Simon, co-founded William E. Simon & Sons, a global merchant bank. The two brothers are also the co-chairs of the William E. Simon Foundation.

2002 Gubernatorial Primary

Simon won the Republican nomination in the primary election of March 2002. Some credit Simon's primary win to incumbent Governor Gray Davis' preemptive campaign against Simon's major primary opponent, former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, a moderate Republican, whom Davis considered a more formidable opponent. At the beginning of the campaign Riordan had higher name recognition and popularity than any other gubernatorial candidate. In fact Riordan began attacking Davis early on in the primaries, as if he already had the GOP nomination, which is what prompted the counter-attack according to Garry South, Davis' campaign manager. Simon's come-from-behind win reflected both the GOP's dissatisfaction with Riordan's inability to appeal to the GOP base (he had publicly insulted George Deukmejian, California's most popular Republican governor after Ronald Reagan, and it was revealed he supported Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein with campaign contributions in the past) and support for Simon's straight-conservative image. Both Riordan and Simon are Roman Catholics and Knights of Malta, with Riordan pro-choice on abortion, and Simon, pro-life.

2002 Gubernatorial General Election

Davis's campaign advertisements made heavy use of scandals relating to alleged mismanagement of Simon's business and charities, though one of the major court rulings unfavorable to Simon was since overturned.

In August 2002, a California Superior Court jury found Simon's company guilty of defrauding an estranged business partner in a civil lawsuit and ordered him to pay $78 million in damages. The jury ruled that Simon's company, William E. Simon & Sons, defrauded Paul Hindelang, Jr., a convicted drug trafficker, in a deal to take over Hindelang's pay phone company, Pacific Coin. The jury found that Simon's company hid its plans to expand and take Hindelang's company public against his wishes, and that Pacific Coin collapsed under the weight of the debt that Simon's company piled on it in its attempts to expand the pay phone service. Simon, co-chair of Simon & Sons, was not named as a defendant in the case and has said that he was not involved in the daily management of the firm. The judge overturned the jury's verdict; as of August 2003, the case was still on appeal.

Simon's campaign centered largely on allegations of corruption in the incumbent's administration and Davis' handling of the 2001 energy crisis.

Simon's gubernatorial campaign is viewed as being unprofessional to the point of being comical. The most serious gaffes of his campaign included: 1. Immediately after the gubernatorial debate against Gray Davis, Simon accused Davis of receiving campaign funds in the Lt. Governor's office, a felony. Simon distributed a photo of Davis being handed a check and insisted that the picture was taken in the Lt. Governor's office in the State capitol. Within an hour of its release the location in the picture was determined to have no resemblance to the Lt. Governor's office, and within a few days the donor in the picture identified the location as his home in Southern California.

2. At the onset of the campaign Davis continually pressed Simon to release his tax returns to the public, a voluntary, but common, practice among candidates for public office. Garry South, Davis' campaign manager later revealed that Davis' main goal in having them made public was a desire to know the potential size of Simon's war chest. Davis spent his whole professional career as a public servant and had no sizable personal fortune from which he could loan or donate to his own election campaign. Simon had boosted his credentials to his party by making it known that if necessary he could mount a credible campaign against Davis by drawing on his personal fortune. Indeed, the two candidates' campaigns became a study on the issue of wealthy millionaire vs. public servant as candidate. Simon's refusal to reveal his finances became an embarrassing campaign issue, and led to suspicion that as a multimillionaire he was trying to hide tax fraud or shady dealings. After a few months he finally relented and it became public that his fortune was very small, not enormous, and mostly from coming from a large inheiratance from the late William Simon, and nothing suspicious or untoward was discovered.

Despite Davis' high disapproval ratings, he managed to defeat Simon by a margin of 47.4% of the vote to Simon's 42.4%.

After Run for Governor

Simon was one of the business leaders that Enron CEO Ken Lay met with on May 17, 2001 at the Los Angeles Peninsula Hotel during the California Energy Crisis. Other executives that attended the meeting were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Riordan. When the 2003 California recall became a reality, Simon announced he would once again be a candidate for California Governor, but ran for only a short time after qualifying for the ballot before withdrawing from the race August 23, 2003. He said, "There are too many Republicans in this race and the people of our state simply cannot risk a continuation of the Gray Davis legacy." Simon did not endorse any candidates at the time, but several weeks later, he endorsed front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger. Despite dropping out, his name still appeared in the ballot, and he placed 12th in a field of 135 candidates. Simon spent most of 2004 and 2005 preparing to run for California state treasurer in 2006, and although he was the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination, Simon dropped out in October 2005 citing the need to devote more time and attention to his family and four children. Simon has four children, Cary, Willy (who is diagnosed with severe autism), Lulu, and Griffy. They live in Pacific Palisades, CA and have a vacation home on Maui.

On February 26, 2007, Mr. Simon was appointed as the Director of Policy for the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee. Simon is the most influential member of the Rudy campaign, and was referred to many times as Rudy's Professor'.'